Letters: President's gun plan on target

When the NRA and its political servants talk about “the will of the people” regarding stricter laws for gun sales and registration, they seem to forget that recent polls show that what our president has proposed doing is exactly what 85 percent of Americans want! Including 70 percent of Republicans.

For instance, in one University of Massachusetts/Lowell poll, 78 percent favor more thorough background checks and 80 percent favor closing gun show loopholes. This has nothing to do with Americans’ freedom under the Constitution. After all, we register cars, electronics, homes and many other belongings for our own protection in case of theft, accidents, disasters and the like. We register people to vote. This is all part of being a true republic.

As to why the president didn’t just ask Congress to do something, instead of taking executive action himself? That’s exactly what he’s been asking them to consider for almost eight years now, without any success.

Thank you, President Obama, for wanting to make our great nation safer for everyone, including our little school children.

Bonnie Compton Hanson

Santa Ana

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Given the chaos, confusion and killings associated with the rampant availability of firearms in our country, alongside congressional inaction, President Obama is compelled by the Constitution to resort to executive directives in order to ensure domestic tranquility.

Ben Miles

Huntington Beach

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Re: “Obama to take part in CNN town hall on gun violence” and “Clinton backs Obama on guns” [Jan. 4]: Both articles address terrorism, gun control and potential executive actions as a result of both the Paris and San Bernardino tragedies. However, they missed what I believe to be the key issue – it’s not about guns and control of guns to law-abiding citizens, but rather about controlling people and the aberrant behavior of people.

How do we address this without undermining constitutional rights? What intrusions would be acceptable to the American people to prevent such terrorist acts, along with acts of the criminally insane – shouldn’t that be the center of conversation?

The facts show that we are beyond stopping terrorist organizations at their ideological roots because those roots have been dispersed throughout our country rather effectively via social media. I liken it to a cancerous tumor that has metastasized; you can address the destruction of the tumor, successful or not, but finding and destroying the metastasized/aberrant cells is very difficult. Unfortunately, we are at the point where the aberrant cells are people living among us – this is the American fear and is why Americans are increasingly providing protection for themselves and not relying on anyone else to do so.

Our government agencies house brilliant people, but with their hands tied and without integrated/shared data bases, their brilliance falls by the wayside. It’s time to untie their hands, and how do we effectively do this and preserve the American way of life – isn’t this the conversation that needs to take place?

James L. Pace

San Clemente

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I am strongly for gun control measures, as there has been far too many murders in America, especially mass murders. But President Obama is going about it the wrong way.

You can’t do it unilaterally through executive order, which will only be temporary, of limited scope and of questionable legality. You have to do it through Congress, with massive support from the American people.

Short-term measures like President Obama’s may look good but will be ineffective and won’t solve our gun violence problem.

Kenneth L. Zimmerman

Huntington Beach

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